The GW men’s varsity crew team placed fourth out of seven at the Kerr Cup Saturday, just two boatlengths behind winner Downing University.

The Colonials (18-5) also could not catch the University of Virginia or St Joseph’s on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

But the team is likely thinking about its next race.

The team will take on Georgetown in Sunday’s best of seven Big Duel at 8 a.m. The two teams will race from the Key Bridge to Washington Harbor on the Potomac River, a distance of half a mile.

I imagine there will be a lot of pride on the line in a cross-town confrontation such as this, Coach Gene Kininmonth said. The national coaching polls have ranked Georgetown right with us all year. The time for the showdown has definitely arrived.

A fast start out of the blocks is crucial, Kininmonth said.

We will probably practice just our starting sequence alone about two hundred times this week.

Georgetown has a large crew team. So GW’s strategy will attack that, Kininmonth said.

Our strategy will be to look to unbalance them early and just try to hang on, Kininmonth said. If we do that we can be successful. Either way, it is undoubtedly going to be close.

-Sean Michael Lee